facts alleged had been true, they would have amounted to a plain case
of actual treason; whereas here, admitting the truth of all the facts
alleged, there was no pretence for saying that any treason
contemplated by the legislature had been committed. If this scheme had
succeeded, not only would there have been a sacrifice of life contrary
to law, but all political 'agitation' must have been extinguished in
England, as there would have been a precedent for holding that the
effort to carry a measure by influencing public opinion through the
means openly resorted to in our days, is a 'compassing the death of
the sovereign.' The only chance of escaping such servitude would have
been civil war. It is frightful to think of the perils to which the
nation was exposed.... But Erskine and the crisis were framed for each
other.... His contemporaries, who without him might have seen the
extinction of freedom among us, saw it, by his peculiar genius, placed
on an imperishable basis."[146] But Erskine without a Jury, Gentlemen,
what could he have done? He could only wail, O Jerusalem,
Jerusalem--when she would not!

[Footnote 146: 5 Campbell, 367.]

* * * * *

Now, Gentlemen, let us come over to this side of the water. I shall
mention some cases in which the Jury have manfully done their duty,
some others in which they have allowed themselves to be browbeaten and
bullied by a judge, and so have done the greatest wrong.

1. First look at the famous case of John Peter Zenger.[147] Here are
the facts. In 1733, Mr. Zenger established a newspaper in New
York--there was only one there before--called the "New York Weekly
Journal," "containing the freshest Advices foreign and domestic." In
some numbers of this he complained, modestly enough, of various
grievances in the administration of the Province, then ruled by
Governor Cosby. He said, "as matters now stand their [the People's]
liberties and properties are precarious, and that Slavery is likely
to be entailed on them and their posterity, if some past things be not
amended." He published the remarks of some one who said he "should be
glad to hear that the Assembly would exert themselves, as became them,
by showing that they have the interest of their country more at heart
than the gratification of any private view of any of their members, or
being at all affected by the smiles or frowns of a Governor, both
which ought equally to be despised when the in